ANKARA
The Republican People's Party (CHP) has announced its former leader Deniz Baykal as its candidate in the parliament speaker election come June 30.
CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said Wednesday his party made the offer the newly-elected senior lawmaker from Antalya province, and he said yes.
As the most senior deputy at the age of 76 Baykal is the acting parliament speaker until the election of a permanent speaker.
Kilicdaroglu said: "We hope that this temporary duty will become permanent."
"I am pleased to receive the offer to make this temporary job a permanent one. I do thank him [Kilicdaroglu] and his party," Baykal, for his part, told press members at the parliament.
Earlier this week, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) named Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, a former deputy chairman of the AK Party, as its candidate for parliament speaker.
Candidates will be able to submit their applications till June 28.
According to the Turkish constitution, the election of the speaker shall be conducted via secret ballot.
The first two ballots, which will take place on June 30, require a two-thirds majority of the total members. In the third, to be held on July 1, an absolute majority is needed.
If this cannot be obtained, a fourth ballot shall be held on the same day in a runoff between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the third.
